Oceanside wants residents to sound off about a proposed half-cent sales tax hike that could be on their ballot in November.

The city is conducting an online survey to learn more about what people think of the proposed tax measure. If approved by voters, it would boost the city’s 7.75 percent sales tax to 8.25 percent.

“The online survey is designed to offer people an inviting way to share their opinions and questions,” Assistant City Manager Deanna Lorson said in an email.

Consisting of eight multiple-choice questions and one written comment section, the brief survey on the city’s website, www.ci.oceanside.ca.us, is designed to give an overview of residents’ priorities and questions.

It’s part of the city’s “outreach program” designed with the help of Encinitas-based consultant True North Research. The firm’s work showed about 64 percent of likely Oceanside voters would support a sales tax increase if they were made aware of how it would improve their safety and quality of life.

Revenue from the new sales tax would be used to boost the city’s general fund, which pays for police and fire services, parks and recreation, street maintenance and other basic services.

The city’s income has failed to keep pace with its population growth, city officials have said, and they’ve considered the ballot measure as a possible solution for several years.

Without a tax increase increase, the consultant’s report states, Oceanside faces a $4 million deficit in fiscal 2020-’21 just to maintain existing services and facilities.

The nonprofit San Diego County Taxpayers Association promised Monday it would carefully examine the Oceanside tax measure, if it gets on the ballot.

“Our Association has supported sales tax increases in the past, but only when our analysis shows the city balances its budget, maintains adequate reserve levels, and actively works to reduce its unfunded pension liability and other debt,” association President and CEO Haney Hong said in an email.

“We look forward to working with the City of Oceanside to ensure that local taxpayers are represented and informed through this process,” Hong said.

So far only a handful of people have completed the survey, but city officials are encouraging more people to take part.

“We just launched the outreach program,” Lorson said. “As the responses increase, if we do see substantial participation or some over-arching trends, we may share some kind of public update down the road.

“It is not scientific and shouldn’t be viewed as quantifiable, because it’s made up only of self-selected respondents,” she said. “It’s not designed for numerical results, and it shouldn’t be used in general to draw broad conclusions.”

If voters approve the proposed ballot measure, it would be the first city sales tax in Oceanside’s 130-year history.

The City Council has until Aug. 10 to decide whether to place the measure on the November ballot, and approval requires a two-thirds vote, or four of the five council members. In the citywide election, the measure needs a simple majority, which is a single vote more than 50 percent of the votes cast, to pass.

Informational presentations on the proposal are planned over the next few weeks to several city commissions and groups such as Visit Oceanside, the city’s tourism agency.

“Quality-of-life issues are important to our community,” Leslee Gaul, Visit Oceanside’s president and CEO, said by email. “This could be a mechanism for ensuring those issues are taken care of for our citizens … (and) in generating economic development and creating a community where people want to live, work and play.”

So far, the agency has taken no position on the measure, she said, but a presentation is scheduled for the board’s meeting in April.

California has a basic statewide sales tax of 7.25 percent, and San Diego County residents also pay an additional half-percent tax to fund transportation-related improvements.

Most other North County cities have the same sales tax rate as Oceanside. Vista voters approved a half-cent increase in 2006 that boosted its tax to 8.25 percent.

Del Mar voters approved a 1 percent hike in 2016 that gave it an 8.75 percent rate, the highest in the county.